Their captain, Dave Cirigliano, is probably on the list for best bowlers at the Open without an Eagle. He has eight prior top 10 finishes, he's one of only two bowlers with three 300s at the Open, and he's 8th on the average list of bowlers with 30 years. And the rest of the team and their companion team are no slouches either. I'd love to see Dave take the lead in doubles today.

HA! I was just talking to the other person on this list last month. Craig Szplett runs the Pro Shop at Palos Lanes where I bowl Tuesday nights. When he had 2 of them, I talked with him about it. He said that he was surprised that the list was so small. When he had #3 a few years ago, there was a cool article about it.

I am here in Vegas. Had a chance to go down and watch the late team squad last night. Amazing place. Saw a few lefties throwing it out to around 8 at the down lane markers and getting strikes. One of them was pretty rev impaired too. Got a practice session tomorrow night so we will see how it plays for me but I like what I saw and I think it will be a matter of whether I can hit my target.

I leave on Friday and bowl Sat at 5:30 and Sunday at 1. I'm looking forward to it. Been a long time since I have hung out with this group of friends. I'm going to need to go into detox for a while afterward though

Didn't see that but I've eaten enough junk food on this trip, LOL. Coronado Cafe at South Point is pretty good though FWIW. If you're bowling a late squad especially they have some good after Midnight specials. Had a late practice on Tuesday and got a steak dinner with eggs, toast and hash browns for $5.

Anyway bowled team today and shot 195+151+208=554. Shot played different in practice with less friction, at least on the left side. Had my Pyramid Antidote that I just got before coming out here and took that down to 500 and got through the first game clean with only 4 strikes and no doubles. Got through the first game shooting at mostly single pins. Did have a chance to strike in the 11th for a 200 but threw my worst shot and went 3 off the left before cleaning it up on the final bal. Second game ran into problems and ball stopped finishing. Wasted a couple of frames making bad adjustments. I eventually figured out that I had to move my feet left but keep my downlane target the same which was 10 at the markers. Had to do this a couple of times, had 1 other lefty bowling with me near the same area. I mostly hit hit my target in the 3rd game (at least at the arrows) but had some shots with either too much speed or not getting it off my hand cleanly resulting in some multi=pin combos. A little frustrating because I was very careful all night (the 11th of game 1 notwitstanding) to not swing the ball out but I do struggle with slowing down my ball speed. Fortunately didn't washout on my headpin misses and was able to convert the 1,3,9 both times I left it as well as the bucket, double wood, and 3,5,9 which I left on the light hits all while going straight at them and with no spare ball. Did have an early double in that game and doubled in the 10th to get over 200.

Overall really happy with my spare shooting and I think I had pretty good series for my first time out. We'll see how singles and doubles go tomorrow but my plan is to not give the pocket away and grind it out like I did tonight. Prepared for the shot being tougher than the team shot.

For you righties: Our high bowler was a first timer that just missed out on a 600. He had a rough first game but then took out a pitch black and played about 16 to 10 and shot 232 and 218 in the last two games. Very impressive as I was told by multiple people that urethane wasn't going to work here for anyone.

We'll see how singles and doubles go tomorrow but my plan is to not give the pocket away and grind it out like I did tonight. Prepared for the shot being tougher than the team shot.

This is what I have heard from the beginning. Don't give up the pocket. In years past, you had to create friction at 10 and then moved your feet left and then don't get the ball outside of the burn you just built. From what I have seen, you are almost better off with a small swing at your burn spot and more straight up.

We'll see how singles and doubles go tomorrow but my plan is to not give the pocket away and grind it out like I did tonight. Prepared for the shot being tougher than the team shot.

This is what I have heard from the beginning. Don't give up the pocket. In years past, you had to create friction at 10 and then moved your feet left and then don't get the ball outside of the burn you just built. From what I have seen, you are almost better off with a small swing at your burn spot and more straight up.

I've heard that D\S are brutal. Can't wait anyway.

They sure were and definitely planned on going in to miss to the inside if I was going to miss at all. Shot 195+140+200=535 in doubles and 176+234+158=568 in singles. Game 1 had just 3 strikes and stayed on the headpin to manage makeable spares but completely lost it in game 2. Started to miss the headpin and had an ugly 1,3,7,9,10 leave for my first open and then had 3 opens in a row with 2 splits with a whiffed 7 pin in there (my only single pin miss of the tournament). Went to my Radical Ridiculous @2000 in game 3 and had to really keep the speed down and play it left to right to get it up to the pocket. The good news is when it hit the pocket it did carry and didn't leave another 7 pin the rest of the day. Carried some light hits as well. Had been playing with my Grudge at 1k and it was just too much surface I guess because it just resulted in flat 7s when I did hit the pocket.

So I stuck with that ball the rest of the way. Despite having 3 lefties on the pair the left side didn't seem to break down at all. If anything there was either a little bit of carry down or the fronts got burnt up because I had to move my feet outside a few times. Had a chance to shoot a good singles set but a washout & open in the 10th of game 1 turned a 190s game into 176, and after having my best game of the tournament chopped two consecutive leaves to start game 3 and then left a 4-6 split in the 7th and saw my chances of shooting a 6 go out the window.

Still ended up with 1657 for all events which is pretty respectable I think. Disappointed that I had one really bad game in each set but my spare shooting was much better than it has been and kept me in it. Saw too many people (including my doubles partner) needlessly whiff single pins by hooking at them so I really believe you have to go straight at everything, even double wood. Hoping the USBC does away with the not revealing the patterns nonsense next year and I can consult my driller (who also is left-handed) about getting a few balls and layouts that are going to help me for next year. I really think I can shoot some good scores if I can get better ball reaction.

Good luck to GP and anyone else that's going to be bowling here. Had a good time here and looking forward to coming back to South Point in two years.

Just finished up my Team event. Wasn't pretty. But at least I can say I shot 500.

Heard from a pro u need to burn a line around the ten board or else you wont have any shot at all. Even if the 1st game is bad, this is the strategy I was told to use. We did just that. At first I wasn't putting anything on the ball at all, throwin between 2nd an 3rd. as the games wore on I could start putting more an more wrist action in my throw and by the 3rd game, really midway 2nd, it had opened up. 1st game horrible tho, 132 w/ an open in the 10th. 2nd game finished near my "sport" avg adjustment w/a 174 and ended things w/ a 214. 3rd game wasn't even clean, I got hosed in the 6th by a pocket split that I didn't deserve.

There were some good bowlers on lanes 1 an 2, I think they may have finished top 5? 1 of em had an eagle.

we'll see how dbls/singles goes tomorrow. im not expecting much just trying to have fun w/ it. My spare shooting was good tonight, just throw em hard an straight. most of my opens were due to me just missing my target. just gotta have more concentration.

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